Strengths-based performance appraisal focuses on identifying, appreciating, and developing employee’s qualities in line with the company goals. In this study, we investigated to what extent strengths-based performance appraisal is associated with higher levels of perceived supervisory support, and in turn a higher motivation to improve performance. We distributed a questionnaire to employees working for a large Dutch consultancy firm right after their yearly appraisal (N = 422) and linked the questionnaire data to their official performance ratings. Conditional process analysis indicated (...) that strengths-based performance appraisal had a positive effect on perceived supervisor support, and in turn on motivation to improve performance. Furthermore, the effect of strengths-based performance appraisal was particularly strong, when the performance rating was relatively low. Our findings indicate that a focus on strengths in the performance appraisal may boost employees’ optimism regarding future successes, which is especially important to safeguard a supportive relationship with the supervisor when the performance rating is relatively low. (shrink)

According to Peter van Inwagen, visible inanimate objects do not, strictly speaking, exist. In defending this controversial thesis, he offers fresh insights on such topics as personal identity, commonsense belief, existence over time, the phenomenon of vagueness, and the relation between metaphysics and ordinary language.

NG van Kampen is a well-known theoretical physicist who has had a long and distinguished career. His research covers scattering theory, plasma physics, statistical mechanics, and various mathematical aspects of physics. In addition to his scientific work, he has written a number of papers about more general aspects of science. An indefatigable fighter for intellectual honesty and clarity, he has pointed out repeatedly that the fundamental ideas of physics have been needlessly obscured. As those papers appeared in various journals, partly (...) in Dutch, it was felt that it would be worthwhile to collect them (translating the Dutch material into English) and make them available to a larger audience. This is a book of major importance to scientists and university teachers. (shrink)

Een van de hoekstenen van het idee dat de wetenschap een eenheid is, wordt gevormd door de overtuiging dat er in haar rijk één taal wordt gesproken: de taal van de feiten. Natuurlijk zijn er tussen de wetenschappen ook grote verschillen, maar die betreffen volgens deze overtuiging het gebied van de theorieën. De data waarop deze zich baseren, zouden neutraal geformuleerd kunnen worden. Als dit niet zo zou zijn, wordt ons het angstbeeld van een grote spraakverwarring voorgehouden.

The most important method of the experiential sciences is the so-called scientific induction, viz. the method that starts from the observation of the particular and individual and tends to obtain abstractly-general or universal statements. This article explains that such a progression from the individual to the universal can only be accounted for if it can be considered as an application of some general intellectual insights. As to the main feature, this application can be made explicit by means of the following (...) deductive syllogism : Maior : Whatever happens with regularity in the material world happens of necessity, i.e. by virtue of the proper nature of things. Minor : Now an investigation of the data of experience shows that a phenomenon of species A is regularly connected with a phenomenon of species B. Conclusion : Therefore, a phenomenon of species A is necessarily connected with a phenomenon of species B. The minor of this syllogism gives the result of the empirical research and this way of acting has to be accounted for by a critical investigation of the general methods used by physical science, the so-called methods of Stuart Mill . The foundation of the maior is given in section 4. It appears that this principle presupposes the absolute validity of the law of causality and, moreover, the determinism of the material nature. A few remarks are added concerning regularity and probability. The various individual instances which are the starting-point of scientific research are supposed to be the representatives of a certain species. This amounts to the supposition that there is a certain species-individual-structure in the material things. This problem is treated in section 5. In order to arrive at a general statement about a certain kind of phenomena it will usually be necessary to combine experiential data obtained at different times and places and in different individual circumstances. Such a procedure is based upon the general presupposition that nature is uniform. This general presuppositions implies in particular two presuppositions concerning the irrelevancy of time and place. These questions are dealt with in section 6. Finally in section 8 a few remarks are added concerning character and value of the general conclusions obtained by scientific induction. (shrink)

Thirteen chapters on individual authors such as Spinoza, Bayle, Van Effen and Hemsterhuis, and on schools of thought such as Dutch Cartesianism, Newtonianism and Wolffianism. It also addresses the early Dutch reception of Kant.

The article offers an extensive interpretation of Human All Too Human I, 114: “The non-Greek element in Christianity”. The origin of this section goes back to 1875 when Nietzsche was preparing a course on “The Religion of the Greek”. It is pointed out that for Nietzsche the opposition as such and in general is much more important than this specific opposition between Greek and Christian religion or culture. Christianity is in Nietzsche's writings almost always presented in some sort of opposition, (...) but there are many different oppositions in which it appears. The nature of the opposition which is so highly valued by Nietzsche, is described as agon, and is shown to be very different from the metaphysical opposition as criticized by Nietzsche in Beyond Good and Evil § 2. Nietzsche attempts to put Christianity back into an agonistic relation with Greek culture. But whereas Greek culture recognizes the principle of the agon, it is denied and condemned in Christianity. Greek culture shows the agon to be a principle of measure. Christianity turns out to be a religion of excessiveness. (shrink)

van der Velden, Matthew In the context of twenty-first-century Australia, Catholic secondary colleges are facing an ever-dwindling number of student enrolments coming from a Catholic background. Students that identify themselves as members of the Roman Catholic Church occupy a wide spectrum of positions along the faith and sacramental journey of the Catholic tradition. In Catholic colleges around Australia, there are a number of Catholic students, sometimes referred to as 'cradle Catholics', who received all of the sacraments of initiation during their (...) childhood, through either sacramental programs attached to their Catholic primary schooling or catechesis sessions provided by their parish. However, there are also a large number of Catholic students who have not received all of the sacraments of initiation, often only receiving baptism as an infant. Additionally, at Catholic colleges there can also be a large number of students who are members of other faith communities, such as Anglicans and members of other Protestant Churches, whose baptism is recognised by the Roman Catholic Church, yet are unable to fully participate in the sacramental opportunities provided by their school, such as the Eucharist and reconciliation. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is a powerful process for supporting students such as these to access a more fully formed Catholic faith and sacramental life. (shrink)

Hans van Ditmarsch, Wiebe van der Hoek and Barteld Kooi (2011). Reasoning about local properties in modal logic. In K. Tumer and P. Yolum and L. Sonenberg and P. Stone (editors). Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2011), pp. 711-718.

We investigated how the perception of being dissimilar to others at work relates to employees’ felt inclusion, distinguishing between surface-level and deep-level dissimilarity. In addition, we tested the indirect relationships between surface-level and deep-level dissimilarity and work-related outcomes, through social inclusion. Furthermore, we tested the moderating role of a climate for inclusion in the relationship between perceived dissimilarity and felt inclusion. We analyzed survey data from 887 employees of a public service organization. An ANOVA showed that felt inclusion was lower (...) for individuals who perceived themselves as deep-level dissimilar compared to individuals who perceived themselves as similar, while felt inclusion did not differ among individuals who perceived themselves as surface-level similar or dissimilar. Furthermore, a moderated mediation analysis showed a negative conditional indirect relationship between deep-level dissimilarity and work-related outcomes through felt inclusion. Interestingly, while the moderation showed that a positive climate for inclusion buffered the negative relationship between deep-level dissimilarity and felt inclusion, it also positively related to feelings of inclusion among all employees, regardless of their perceived (dis)similarity. This research significantly improves our understanding of how perceived dissimilarity affects employees by distinguishing between surface-level and deep-level dissimilarity and by demonstrating the importance of a climate for inclusion. (shrink)

In 2017, the blockade of Qatar Gulf states caused a plethora of effects on the country. This paper sought to examine the resulting threat effects of this blockade in terms of lowered self-esteem and well-being, and the potential buffering effects of an overarching identity. Using self-report questionnaire data from Qatari secondary school students, multiple moderated mediation models investigated the predictive effects of youngsters’ perceived threat, via self-esteem, on their well-being, and the mitigating roles herein of, respectively, national, Gulf region, and (...) Arab identity. Perceived threat was indeed related to lower well-being via lower self-esteem, and this relationship was equally strong for those low and high in social identity. In terms of the three facets of identity, the overarching Gulf identity seems the most predictive, and it even buffers the negative relationship between threat and reduced self-esteem. (shrink)

The differential field of transseries extends the field of real Laurent series and occurs in various contexts: asymptotic expansions, analytic vector fields, and o-minimal structures, to name a few. We give an overview of the algebraic and model-theoretic aspects of this differential field and report on our efforts to understand its elementary theory.

Reinhard Finster, Gerd van den Heuvel: "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz". Mit Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. rowohlts monographien. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 1990. 158 S., br., 10,80 DM.

Saunders and van Brakel propose that we rethink or reject much of current colour theory. Many of the problems they cite appear to call for further research rather than a radical rethinking of colour theory. The controversy described in this target article appears to be itself a case of or something that does not exist.

Ter gelegenheid van het afscheid van prof. dr. W.J. van der Dussen als hoogleraar cultuurgeschiedenis en filosofie aan de Open Universiteit Nederlanden zijn in deze bundel verspreide opstellen van zijn hand opgenomen. De bijdragen hebben betrekking op de filosofie, de geschiedenis en geschiedfilosofie, maar ook de cultuurfilosofie en -kritiek. De bundel bevat tevens enkele artikelen over de Engelse filosoof R.G. Collingwood: Van der Dussen is internationaal bekend vanwege zijn onderzoek naar diens theorieën en heeft enkele herziene uitgaven van Collingwoods geschiedfilosofische (...) werken verzorgd. (shrink)

Aan de hand van recente ontdekkingen op het gebied van neurowetenschappen, biologische evolutie, paleontologie, evolutionaire psychologie en evolutionaire dynamicamodellen, leggen Dirk Van Duppen en Johan Hoebeke uit hoe pro-sociale gedragingen en altruïsme het succes van de ‘homo sapiens’ evolutionair hebben bepaald. Vermits de mens als meest kwetsbaar en meest prematuur dier op de wereld is gekomen, was zijn enige manier om te overleven een biologisch-culturele co-evolutie waarbij zijn intelligente vermogens zich enkel konden ontwikkelen door zijn ingeslepen drang om zich sociaal (...) te gedragen. Dit wetenschappelijk gegrond beeld van de ‘homo sapiens’ staat volledig haaks op dit van de neoliberale ‘homo economicus’ die enkel op individuele winstmaximalisatie gericht is en op de competitiedrang, die als enige drijfkracht voor de vooruitgang wordt beschouwd. De discrepantie tussen de biologisch-culturele fundamenten van onze soort en de actuele overheersende ideologie waaraan wij continu onderworpen worden, zou het stijgend ongenoegen en het ‘mal vivre’ in onze maatschappijen kunnen verklaren. Zoals José Saramago het uitte: ‘Als de omstandigheden zo bepalend zijn voor de mens, laat ons dan die omstandigheden meer menselijk maken.’. (shrink)

Systematische uiteenzetting van de wijsbegeerte der wetsidee.

Constructivist analyses of risk regulation are typically agnostic about what should count as robust or reliable knowledge. Indeed, constructivists usually portray competing accounts of risk as if they were always equally contingent or engaged with different and incommensurable issues and problem definitions. This article argues that assumptions about the equal reliability of competing accounts of risk deserve to be, and sometimes can be, examined empirically. A constructivist approach grounded in epistemological realism is outlined and applied empirically to a particular comparative (...) U.S./u.k. case study of pesticide regulation. The article argues that while the scope for interpretative flexibility when addressing risk issues is clearly extensive, it is not unconstrained. By scrutinizing the structure and coherence of particular risk assessments and policy decisions by reference to both empirical evidence and commonly held robust standards of interpretation, the article argues that the U.K. evaluation was not only less precautionary than its U.S. equivalent, but it was also less well constructed and therefore less reliable. Several social and institutional characteristics of U.S. and U.K. policy making are highlighted that appear variously to facilitate or inhibit the production of reliable knowledge and the making of prudent policy decisions. (shrink)

The transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769 appear to mark the starting point of instrumental science in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). This essay examines the conditions that triggered and constituted instrumental and institutional science on Indonesian soil in the late eighteenth century. In 1765 the Reverend J. M. Mohr, whose wife had received a large inheritance, undertook to build a fully equipped private observatory in Batavia (now Jakarta). There he made several major astronomical and meteorological observations. Mohr’s (...) initiative inspired other Europeans living on Java around 1770 to start a scientific movement. Because of the lack of governmental and other support, it was not until 1778 that this offspring of the Dutch‐Indonesian Enlightenment became a reality. The Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen tried from the beginning to put into effect the program Mohr had outlined. The members even bought his instruments from his widow, intending to continue his measurements. For a number of reasons, however, this instrumental program was more than the society could support. Around 1790 instrumental science in the former Dutch East Indies came to a standstill, not to be resumed for several decades. (shrink)

The parables of Jesus: Allegories or symbols of social transformation? This article reflects on a possible methodology that can be used to interpret the parables of Jesus preserved in the Synoptics (and the Gospel of Thomas). It is argued that the available versions of the parables of Jesus have already been allegorised, and that this should be taken into consideration when the extant versions of parables are interpreted as parables of the historical Jesus. The parables should also, as far as (...) possible, be interpreted against the social realia evoked by the parables. In this endeavour, Roman-Egypt inscriptions and papyri are in most cases the only sources available. The article concludes with a few examples, illustrating the possibilities of interpretation when the proposed methodology is applied. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BreathingLuk Van den Dries (bio)This text, "Breathing," was conceived for the book From Act to Acting: Fabre's Guidelines for the Performer of the 21st Century (2021). The book was conceived and designed by Jan Fabre, author, theatre artist, and visual artist, active since the 1970s. The book was written by Luk Van den Dries, dramaturg and theatre researcher of the University of Antwerp, in tight collaboration with Jan Fabre (...) and the three most important performers/teachers of the Belgian theatre company, Troubleyn (Annabelle Chambon, Cédric Charron, and Ivana Jozic). The book sheds new light on the physical, mental, and vocal training of the performer and furthermore gives insight into Fabre's revolutionary thoughts on contemporary theatre.1Breathing is the first of the ten performative principles that together create the basic grammar in which the language of the performers is grounded.Three-phased breathing (one part in, one part out, one part nothing) is a basic condition in the series of exercises Jan Fabre developed throughout his career. This respiration technique returns in all exercises. Also, it is the first principle that the performers are taught: by dividing breathing into three equal parts, energy is built up and stress or fatigue is canalized. It is a way to rebalance, to find a place of rest after a strenuous effort, or it can also be used as a springboard to a heightened performance. Very regularly during individual exercises, Fabre will refer to this respiration technique, especially in specific situations of high adrenaline, but of course the performers should learn to use this respiration technique autonomously. They should become so familiar with the rhythm of this breathing that they automatically fall back on it when necessary. Because this respiration technique is so crucial to Fabre's acting pedagogy, it is described in detail as the very first exercise in his book. Its basic principles are explained below as well, as the first performative principle.Breathing is a sign of life, and on this primal and essential level it needs to be understood that, through breathing, the performer gives life. He breathes life into the performance. Fabre himself has described this basic condition for the birth of theatre through breathing very precisely: [End Page 30]The most important weapon of the warrior of beauty is his respiration. When the performance starts, life stops. Life itself dies. The warrior of beauty is alive, but life itself is dead. The warrior of beauty remains with just his own breath. When he enters the stage, he needs to breathe life into deceased life. Like a god gives his breath to create life. In the same way he will create life with his breath. How will he achieve this? By breathing correctly: one-third inhaling through the nostrils, one-third exhaling through pursed lips, one-third without breathing. And then the miracle happens. The breath becomes imagination and the imagination breathes. The warrior of beauty is the master of breath and life.2Fabre's abdominal breathing differs from regular forms of breathing, such as techniques derived from Asian yoga techniques, Chi-kung or Tai-chi, as it stresses different parts. At the same time, it is closely related to it, because these practices also adopt the notion that breathing in the first place rouses vitality and spirit and that the right kind of breathing thus aims at controlling life currents and bringing about a clear mind. In yoga it is called pranayama: prana meaning spirit or force of life, ayama meaning 'control' or 'grasp.' Yoga knows many variants in directing the breath, depending on the asanas (yoga postures) in which they are bedded. Sometimes focusing mainly on the diaphragm and the flanks, sometimes on abdominal breathing. Also, suspending your breath (kumbhaka) is a yoga technique, applied at the end of inhalation as well as after exhalation and during taking breath.In Fabre's case, abdominal breathing is stressed: first, air is inhaled through the nose, subsequently sent in the direction of the peritoneal cavity and the flanks, and then again exhaled via a very precise blowing technique (a dosed flow of air through an imaginary straw). During the cycle the diaphragm remains... (shrink)

In 'Descartes' droom' worden strip en filosofie met elkaar verbonden. Een idee van Hubert Dethier, die in zijn colleges aan de VUB het medium strip tot onderwerp van filosofische bezinning maakte. Filosofe en vroegere stripuitgeefster Margreet van Muijlwijk nam de fakkel van hem over en verbond ter gelegenheid van Hubert Dethiers tachtigste verjaardag diens gedachtegoed met de vele aspecten van wat intussen een volwassen kunst (de negende kunst) is geworden. Strip en filosofie passen goed bij elkaar. Terwijl filosofie een eeuwenoude (...) praktijk is, is het stripverhaal het oudste medium onder de nieuwe media. In tegenstelling tot die laatste is de tijdlijn van een stripverhaal op elk moment tot stilstand te brengen of om te keren. Dat is een eerste voorwaarde voor reflectie: bij de dingen kunnen stilstaan en afwegingen maken. De strip kan op die manier onvermoede inzichten bieden in talloze stromingen van de westerse filosofie en in onze maatschappij in het algemeen. (shrink)

In the Netherlands religion on the one hand and mental health care on the other, have grown apart in the process of secularisation. Nowadays however one can witness a growing need amongst counselors and psychotherapists to be educated in the field of religion, meaning giving and world views (Van der Lans, Pieper, Van Uden, 1993; Raaijmakers, 1994). That religion is back in the focus of attention can also be concluded from the fact that in the latest version of the diagnostic (...) bible, the DSM IV, a separate code (code: V 62.89) has been included for religious or spiritual problems (Lukoff, Lu, Turner, 1992). The case study of a patient with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, which we will present is meant as a contribution to this educational process. We will show how important it is to look at the religious frame of reference of a patient and how this can be handled in the psychotherapeutic treatment. The case will be put within the theoretical perspective of symbolic interactionism (Mead, 1934). (shrink)

Introduction to the translation of “De beteekenis van de wijsbegeerte der wetsidee voor de theorie der menschelijke samenleving” by Herman Dooyeweerd, Philosophia Reformata 2, pp. 99–116.

Het woord 'woke' duikt steeds vaker op in de media. Woke is niet alleen een nieuwe ideologie, maar creë̈ert tevens een heel eigen vocabulaire. Woke-woorden komen vaak uit het Engels, zoals cultural appropriation, safe space, bipoc of gas lighting, terwijl ook allerlei Nederlandse woorden en begrippen, zoals diversiteit, inclusiviteit, transfobie of 'mensen met een vagina' in het woke-jargon een specifieke betekenis hebben gekregen. De verhitte debatten over woke vinden met name plaats in de culturele sector, het onderwijs, de politiek, het (...) publieke debat en op de sociale media. 'Wokabulary - kritisch wokewoordenboek' is daarom bestemd voor journalisten, leraren, HR-medewerkers, beleidsmedewerkers, communicatieadviseurs, museumconservatoren, politici, docenten en niet te vergeten studenten. En daarnaast natuurlijk voor iedere woke-belangstellende. 'Wokabulary' is een lexicon in de stijl van Voltaires beroemde, eloquente 'Filosofisch woordenboek', waarin hij geloof en bijgeloof bekritiseert. 'Wokabulary' verheldert niet alleen de woordenschat van woke, maar bekritiseert deze ook. Tegelijkertijd wordt kritiek geleverd op doorgeslagen antiwokisme."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Thomas Reid on MemoryRené van Woudenbergthis paper is a discussion of Thomas Reid’s views on memory as an “avenue of knowledge.” Part 1 deals with various remarks Reid makes concerning memory, knowledge, and belief which he holds to be “obvious and certain.” Part contains a more detailed discussion of Reid’s thesis that “memory is unaccountable.” Part 3 inquires how Reid’s critique of the Way of Ideas fits with his (...) own views on memory.Reid’s dealings with memory are part of his broader inquiries into the intellectual faculties of the human mind. In the Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man Reid discusses not only memory, but other avenues of knowledge as well, such as perception and reasoning. In these essays Reid is doing straight epistemology. This is not to deny that Reid addresses other topics as well. In the essay on memory, for instance, Reid criticizes John Locke’s account of personal identity. But even then his discussion focusses on epistemological matters; one of his conclusions, for example, is that Locke confounded personal identity with the evidence we have of our personal identity, a thesis, Reid points out, that is bristled with absurd consequences. Although, then, Reid’s views on memory are related with his views on personal identity, I will abstain from a discussion of the latter. His epistemology of memory, I think, warrants attention in its own right.11. memory, knowledge, and beliefI.IIn Essay III of his Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man [1784],2 entitled “Of Memory,” Reid writes: [End Page 117]It is by memory that we have an immediate knowledge of things past. The senses give us information of things only as they exist in the present moment.(EIP 339)Memory, says Reid, gives us knowledge of things past, whereas sense perception gives us knowledge of things present. Reid takes it to be “obvious and certain” (as the title of the first chapter of Essay III indicates) that “The object of memory, or thing remembered, must be something that is past; as the object of perception... must be something which is present. What now is, cannot be an object of memory; neither can that which is past and gone be an object of perception” (EIP 340).These remarks may, however, occasion some doubts. One way of explaining Reid’s remark that the object of memory is something that is past, is that whenever someone, S, remembers something, viz., that p, p will be a proposition about something that is past.3 This explanation gives the right result for such propositions as there was snowfall in late August, and she once visited Finland4 But, as Norman Malcolm has observed, it does not always give the right results.5 For, he says, there are cases of S remembering that p, where p is not a proposition about the past. Let p be his telephone number is 2 79-289-59 75, or his car is in the garage. What is remembered, in these cases, is a proposition about something that is not past, but present (or: about what is presently the case). It is, so it seems at least, possible for S to remember the present.It even seems possible for S “to remember the future” (something Aristotle deemed impossible).6 S can remember, for instance, that the game starts at 8:00 P.M., or that there will be elections next year.No doubt some will find these suggestions preposterous. Still, we say such things as “I remember my telephone number” and “I remember the game starts at 8:00 P.M.” Someone who balks at the suggestion that we can remember present and even future things, therefore, has to find a way of dealing with these quite common modes of saying. One way would be to argue that these manners of saying are incorrect, another that they are elliptical. Since the first thesis is unconvincing (it is, after all, correct, i.e., correct English to use the expressions under consideration), we are left with the second, viz., that these modes of saying are elliptical. Can this be made acceptable? Let us see.Might... (shrink)

Essays over filosofen die als vertegenwoordigers van de deugdenethiek kunnen gelden.

Four paradigmatic views on the task of the philosophy of religion are presented. The first is elaborated by a close reading of the first article of St. Thomas’ Summa Theol. The second paradigm is discussed by considering the ambitions of deism . The transition to the third paradigm is made by contrasting two works of David Hume. His Dialogues concerning Natural Religion fight the deistic idea of a natural religion on its own terms. His Natural History of Religion steers an (...) altogether different course by seeking to uncover the origins of religion in human nature. The fourth paradigm is illustrated by the neo-wittgensteinian tradition in the philosophy of religion. The rather objective grammatical inquiry of religious concepts that this tradition stands for, turns out – unexpectedly – to reconcile people to religion. (shrink)